Transgender & Intersex: April 2008

I finally got my hands on a copy of the April 1st issue of Good Housekeeping's Quick & Simple, with its interview of Terri O'Connell. The cover touts super-chef Paula and her world-famous Southern pound-cake recipe, along with the usual...Read More

This past Thursday, April 24, the Senate passed the immensely popular Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Put broadly the Act bars discrimination in insurance and employment based on one's genetic information. Medical researchers, in particular, decry the reluctance of individuals...Read More

Today I spent the day talking. I talked to many different people concerning many different topics. It was quite the chatty day spent on the National Day of Silence. Yet, the one thing I didn't discuss all day long was...Read More

Never let it be said I didn't give it my best effort. During a surprise call-in during my March 6th show featuring Donna Rose, Joe Racalto, an aide in Congressman Barney Frank's office, suggested I contact him to set up...Read More

In March I said: Essentially it's business as usual for HRC. Nothing has substantially changed in their lobbying efforts. They've had no "'rehabilitative"' moment or change of heart. If you take Keisling's words to heart, the only other conclusion that...Read More

This week, students across the country will participate in The Day of Silence, a remarkable event that rallies thousands of young people to stand in solidarity with their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender classmates. Later today, in Los Angeles, more...Read More

HRC and its defenders has been on a furious spin offensive in the last several weeks. They've been trying to paint its numerous critics like myself as 'transgender conspiracy theorists' and other nastier epithets in other corners of the GLBT...Read More

Last week the Boston Globe ran an op-ed by regular guest columnist Jeff Jacoby, who is known for his conservative views. In the op-ed Jacoby addresses the pregnancy of Tom Beatie and his wife Nancy. Tom, a transgender man, is...Read More

Recently, there's been much discussion about how we go forward in dealing with the Human Rights Campaign as a community, where the popular opinion of the greater LGBT community, and probably of nearly all of those who identify as transgender...Read More

Editor's Note: Robert Ganshorn was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front at Purdue University before creating one of the first Public Television documentaries on gay lifestyles broadcast during his graduate studies at Indiana University. Failing to become the...Read More

Editor's Note: Robert Ganshorn was a founding member of the Gay Liberation Front at Purdue University before creating one of the first Public Television documentaries on gay lifestyles broadcast during his graduate studies at Indiana University. Failing to become the...Read More

Last October Representative Barney Frank said: It's partly because some of the people who are now lately to this fight weren't there helping us through the lobbying. and then said: I have been pleading with people in the gay and...Read More

Tonight, we'll talk with former candidate for Maryland State Delegate and HRC Board of Governors member Dr. Dana Beyer. One of of the very few transpeople still associated with HRC, and certainly the highest-ranking transperson in the organization, we'll talk...Read More

He's not a man, this Jerry. He's not even married like I am.--Milos from Seinfeld Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, in true gasbag form, has decided that he knows more about transgender experiences and Gender Identity Disorder than transgender people...Read More

I just received this from Phyllis Frye: By calling the Houston Police, national HRC deliberately set in motion a police over response. HRC used government and taxpayer monies to intimidate the hell out of TG and gender variant people who...Read More

Editor's note: Monica Helms is an Atlanta based transgender activist. Monica is past executive director of Trans=Action and co-founder of Transgender American Veterans Association. Going back to Arizona has always been one of adventure and pain for me. I lived...Read More

Co-teaching a writing workshop at Toni Amato's on Wednesday night was amazing, and hanging out with Toni was amazing as well. I have never in my life had a queer person greet me by shouting "HEY! MY PAISAN!!" and wrapping...Read More

As I noted in a TransGriot blog post, it's my Houston homeboys' and homegirls' turn to protest an HRC dinner. The HRC Dinner is being held at the convention center hotel across the street from the George R. Brown Convention...Read More

As I noted in a TransGriot blog post, it's my Houston homeboys' and homegirls' turn to protest an HRC dinner. The HRC Dinner is being held at the convention center hotel across the street from the George R. Brown Convention...Read More

Andrew Belonsky tries to find out where GLAAD's been on the Thomas Beatie bashing from last week: That story broke on Friday, so we figured GLAAD wouldn't get involved until Monday. Well, they didn't. We were a bit disappointed in...Read More

I've just returned from the International Foundation for Gender Education's annual conference that was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. A speaker on the very first day said "If you let it, this conference will change you." Even...Read More

The image there is the cover of Philadelphia Gay News, with a big blank space where the interview with Barack Obama should be. It directs readers to editor Mark Segal's tirade against Obama on pages 11 and 21. I have...Read More

Editor's Note: Lena Dahlstrom is a crossdresser from the San Francisco Bay Area who also performs under the stage name "Joie de Vivre." She's counting down the days until the next season of 'Project Runway.' Dear Christian, I hope you're...Read More

I posted yesterday video from Thomas Beatie's appearance on Oprah. Beatie is the Oregon transman who came out publicly about his pregnancy in The Advocate two weeks ago. I think Oprah was overall pretty sensitive to the issue at hand....Read More

Editors' note: Frequent guest blogger Mercedes Allen looks at the role of the medical establishment in relation to trans identity. In recent years, the GLB community has been more receptive to (and even energized in) assisting the transgender community, but...Read More

Just in from the marvelous Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha: What Your Body Wants to Say: Writing As Rebellion and Healing For Queer and Trans of Color Survivors of Violence. Taught by Suzanne del Mazo and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Sunday, April 13-...Read More

While Jay Leno got taken to the woodshed over his "your gayest face" comment, last night's Late Night with David Letterman takes offensive to a whole new level. Letterman's Top Ten List focused on the pregnant trans man. Just wait...Read More

Dear Senator Kennedy: I understand you are going to support a non-gender identity inclusive ENDA. As a constituent, as a lesbian but mostly, as a mother, I am asking you to reconsider. It's a bad choice, Senator Kennedy. And one...Read More

Senator Ted Kennedy will push the non-inclusive ENDA forward in the Senate. While he's usually extremely LGBT-friendly, Kennedy has taken a page from Rep Barney Frank's playbook. The Massachusetts Democrat is leading a push in the Senate for a federal...Read More

Eddie Murphy stunned a just concluded press conference by announcing that he would begin a gender transition on Monday. "I can no longer suppress the beautiful woman that's been dying to get out and that my career has kept from...Read More

Projectors, I have an announcement to make. Today I'm changing my voter registration to Republican and joining the ever expanding ranks of freethinkng Black people rushing to get off the Democrat plantation....Read More